ELON Musk’s Neuralink is preparing to launch clinical trials that will implant brain chips in humans.
Musk, who co-founded Neuralink in 2016, has stated in the past that the technology “will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs.”
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The billionaire CEO also promised that later versions of the brain chips “will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in the brain to Neuralinks in the body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again.”
The Silicon Valley company has already successfully implanted artificial intelligence (AI) microchips in the brains of a macaque and a pig.
Now it seems that Neuralink’s plans are moving forward, but with humans as the company is actively recruiting a “clinical trial director” based in Fremont, California.
The job posting read: “As the clinical trial director, you’ll work closely with some of the most innovative doctors and top engineers, as well as working with Neuralink’s first clinical trial participants.”
“You will lead and help build the team responsible for enabling Neuralink’s clinical research activities and developing the regulatory interactions that come with a fast-paced and ever-evolving environment,” the advert continued.
Last month, Musk said in the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit that his plans for Neuralink are to first implant the chips in humans that have severe spinal cord injuries.
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“I think we have a chance with Neuralink to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a spinal cord injury,” Musk said at the Summit.
“Neuralink’s working well in monkeys, and we’re actually doing just a lot of testing and just confirming that it’s very safe and reliable and the Neuralink device can be removed safely,” he added.
He added that Neuralink hopes to implant the device into human brains sometime in 2022.
Still, Musk has a track record of making overly-optimistic predictions when it comes to Neuralink’s timelines, such as in 2019, when he stated that the chips would be in human skulls by 2020.
For Neuralink to achieve its goal of implanting chips into humans it must first pass the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) feasibility test, then undergo a submission, review, and approval process.
Typically, companies hire trial directors in the early stages of the FDA-process as to design the trial in a way that would optimize their chances of approval — though it’s not clear where Neuralink is in the process.
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